Letterpress consists of a number of new print projects by Micah Lexier. Lexier has a long-standing interest in printmaking and has worked with many different processes over the years including intaglio, aquatint, lithography and silkscreen. But the process he most consistently gravitates to is letterpress (and its sister, foil-stamping) for its physicality and graphic qualities. Both processes work with raised type that is literally pressed into the paper or cloth, leaving a deep, sculptural mark. This exhibition focuses on three new projects made using these two processes.

The three projects are Vitrine Drawings, a new suite of six, large two-colour letterpress prints; Number of Letters, a ten-volume set of foil-stamped cloth-covered book covers and spines; and Lives & Works Envelopes, an ongoing project of numerous letter-size, letterpress prints on coloured papers, which are packaged in printed, archival envelopes. All three projects are united by the use of Lexier’s handwriting and his characteristic simplicity and self-referentialiity.

Vitrine Drawings is a recently completed suite of letterpress prints based on line drawings that Lexier made of the six vitrine displays from his recent exhibition at Printed Matter in New York City. Number of Letters is a set of ten foil-stamped book jackets/spines that play with the relationship between numerals and the number of letters when those numerals are spelled out as words. Number of Letters embodies many of Lexier’s ongoing interests including his love of sequence, the book as object, the idea of a unique multiple, the correlation between numbers and letters, and his preoccupation with handwriting. The third project is the Lives & Works Envelope series that reproduce notes and marks made by the artist and others, including the artist’s father. MKG127 will be presenting a number of examples from the first two years of this expansive, ongoing series

Micah Lexier is Canadian artist who divides his time between Toronto and New York. He has participated in numerous international group exhibitions including Numerica at the Palazzo delle Papesse – Centro Arte Contemporanea, (Siena, Italy, 2007), The Time of Our Lives at the New Museum (New York, 1999), and Speed at the Whitechapel Art Gallery (London, 1998). Lexier’s work is in numerous private and public collections including The British Museum (London), the Contemporary Art Gallery (Sydney, Australia), The National Gallery of Canada (Ottawa), The Art Gallery of Ontario (Toronto), and The Jewish Museum (New York), Lexier has produced a dozen public sculpture across Canada, including works for the Sheppard/Leslie subway station and Air Canada Center in Toronto. He has also curated numerous exhibitions, including the For Example series at the MSVU Art Gallery in Halifax and Me & Them currently on view at College Buildings Art Gallery at the University of Saskatchewan in Saskatoon.

This exhibition is being presented in collaboration with Birch Libralato, who represents Micah Lexier in Toronto, and who will be presenting an exhibition of Lexier’s wall-mounted sculptures, running concurrently with this exhibition. Further examples of Micah Lexier’s work can be seen at: www.micahlexier.com